Car loan articles can be found online with a specialist motoring website and they hold a vast amount of useful information for those who are looking to finance a new or used car. A good site will offer articles on all aspects of car loans which all go towards you finding the best deal for your particular circumstances as well as offering hints and tips on choosing your new vehicle.

By having this knowledge, it means you can make an educated choice as to the right type of car finance for you.

When it comes to finding a loan there are many types to choose from so getting doing your homework is essential, so take advantage of articles aimed at car loans and you get to the best start possible. Articles are often laid out in specific categories which mean you can instantly find access to the information you are looking for.

Car loan articles will tell you all about the various options when it comes to financing your new or used car. Car loan articles giving information for the standard loan will explain the options you have and how to get the best deal possible on a secured or unsecured loan.

The secured loan means that you take the borrowing over a specific amount of time and then spread the repayments in monthly installments over this period. The beauty of this is that you are able to keep the repayments down to a level you can afford each month. However of course the longer you take the loan over, the more interest you will pay. If you have a less than perfect credit rating then this is usually the best chance of securing a loan for a car, as the car will be taken as security against the borrowing.

If you are considering buying a used car then get as much information as you can by way of car loan articles focusing on used car loans or unsecured borrowing. If you have an excellent credit rating and do not need to borrow a lot then you can get a loan without having to put up anything as security. The unsecured loan will usually come with an interest rate that is higher than that of the secured. However by allowing a specialist website to search within the car finance marketplace you can make great savings.

Any type of loan is confusing when it comes to the technical jargon and interest rates. Car loan articles will take the confusion away for you. They will explain clearly what APR means and the tricks that some lenders play to make you believe you are getting an excellent interest rate. For example, some lenders will quotes an interest rate that is for weekly terms and of course if the individual compares this against a monthly or yearly rate then it can seem extremely low. Taking the time to read through the articles and learning as much as possible about car loan and finance can save you a lot of money and of course, a specialist website will offer these resources for free.

In this consumer based society we live in we are spoiled for choice in terms of the consumables we are offered. Regardless if we actually need these products or not billions is spent in the media to convince us that we do. The vast majority of the population does not live within their means. The increasing availability of credit is one factor that is blamed for the increasing amount of personal debt in western society.

On the surface it seems that the availability of credit has plunged many into huge amounts of debt that they will spend the rest of their life paying off but this same weapon called credit it used by savvy investors to create a life of luxury and prosperity in which they can afford the finer things in life.

So what is the major difference in how successful investors and the average consumer use credit?

Well the major difference is smart investors use credit to leverage their investment exposure. This simply means that they borrow to invest. Smart investors do not take on credit if in the long run it will not lead to an increase in income and a positive cash flow. The average consumer on the other hand spends thousands on new cars that depreciate rapidly, holidays they can not afford, large plasma TV's, designer clothes, and homes they can not afford to live in. Ironically some smart investors do like the life of luxury but they almost always certainly live within their means.

The message is quite simple if you must live a life of luxury never borrow money to do so involuntarily you will end up spending years to pay off huge debts. These crippling debts often lead to stress, depression and in allot of cases divorce. Millions of people worldwide live in the bondage of debilitating debts and the only reprieve they are offered is more debt over a longer time period to ease their current debt repayments aka debt consolidation. Extreme caution is advised if you choose debt consolidation as an exit from a life of debt.

So how can one make the transition from debt to prosperity

1: Evaluate your Cash Flow Determine how much money you have coming in each month and how much money is being paid out in debts, expenses and other liabilities. Start with your expenses and get rid of monthly outgoings that are not necessary. This is foregoing temporarily certain amenities for a permanent solution to debt. Club memberships and other things that are not necessary can be canceled. Once you have trimmed down your monthly outgoings by 100-200 pounds / dollars save the extra money or spend it on repaying debts off sooner.

2: Avoid paying Interest only Interest only loans may seem cheap in terms of monthly repayments but in the long term the overall amount you repay can sometimes be as much as 50-150% of the original loan. 3: Live within your means This is quite simple forget what you have been brainwashed to believe, you do not have to drive a new car or have the finer things in life at the expense of personal debt. Buy only what you can afford to pay for in cash. By forming the habit of only paying cash you are forced to purchase only the things that you can afford.

4: Pay of Loans early Paying debts of quickly means you end up paying less in the long run. Think about it why are banks so happy for you to pay less monthly?

5: Consult a financial planner Sit down with a financial planner and draw a road map to get you out of debt.

Taking any of the above steps will free up a few extra hundreds a month. Now that we have a bit of free money you must start to invest if you do not want to retire poor. Remember regardless of what you have stored for your retirement cash based assets have continued to devalue over the last hundred years and even further back. This simply means 1 million 10 years ago had more buying power that it does today and its only reasonable to assume 1 million today will not have the same buying power in the next 10 years. Drastic steps must be taken to secure your future otherwise you may retire with the nasty shock that you simply can not afford to retire.

The key is investing your money (yours and the banks) and getting it to work as hard as possible. Once your outgoings are reduced and you live within your means you should now be looking to supplement your income with investments and / or small business. This time you use your old adversary called credit and turn him into an ally.

By using financial leverage you are simply speeding up the transition. But before you even think of investing a dime invest in your financial education by buying books on success, prosperity, financial planning and budgeting. Once you have gained better insight into the financial world seek financial advice.

Some of the things you can invest in include buy to let properties, franchises, small home based business just to name a few. But most new investors start of with real estate. But be smart real estate is all about timing and pricing so if you do start by acquiring real estate make sure you no what your doing and the timing is right.

In summary cut your outgoings, pay loans of early, live within your means and used credit as a tool to increase your investment income and not for personal extravagance.

Good luck and hopefully you join me and make that transition form debt to financial prosperity.

This article presents a case study of sustained entrepreneurial growth of Kingdom Financial Holdings. It is one of the entrepreneurial banks which survived the financial crisis that started in Zimbabwe in 2003. The bank was established in 1994 by four entrepreneurial young bankers. It has grown substantially over the years. The case examines the origins, growth and expansion of the bank. It concludes by summarizing lessons or principles that can be derived from this case that maybe applicable to entrepreneurs.

Profile of an Entrepreneur: Nigel Chanakira

Nigel Chanakira was raised in the Highfield suburb of Harare in an entrepreneurial family. His father and uncle operated a public transport company Modern Express and later diversified into retail shops. Nigel’s father later exited the family business. He bought out one of the shops and expanded it. During school holidays young Nigel, as the first born, would work in the shops. His parents, particularly his mother, insisted that he acquire an education first.

On completion of high school, Nigel failed to enter dental or medical school, which were his first passions. In fact his grades could only qualify him for the Bachelor of Arts degree programme at the University of Zimbabwe. However, he “sweet-talked his way into a transfer” to the Bachelor in Economics degree programme. Academically he worked hard, exploiting his strong competitive character that was developed during his sporting days. Nigel rigorously applied himself to his academic pursuits and passed his studies with excellent grades, which opened the door to employment as an economist with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

During his stint with the Reserve Bank, his economic mindset indicated to him that wealth creation was happening in the banking sector therefore he determined to understand banking and financial markets. While employed at RBZ, he read for a Master’s degree in Financial Economics and Financial Markets as preparation for his debut into banking. At the Reserve Bank under Dr Moyana, he was part of the research team that put together the policy framework for the liberalization of the financial services within the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme. Being at the right place at the right time, he became aware of the opportunities which were opening up. Nigel exploited his position to identify the most profitable banking institution to work for as preparation for his future. He headed to Bard Discount House and worked for five years under Charles Gurney.

A short while later the two black executives at Bard, Nick Vingirayi and Gibson Muringai, left to form Intermarket Discount House. Their departure inspired the young Nigel. If these two could establish a banking institution of their own so could he, given time. The departure also created an opportunity for him to rise to fill the vacancy. This gave the aspiring banker critical managerial experience. Subsequently he became a director for Bard Investment Services where he gained critical experience in portfolio management, client relationships and dealing within the dealing department. While there he met Franky Kufa, a young dealer who was making waves, who would later become a key co-entrepreneur with him.

Despite his professional business engagement his father enrolled Nigel in the Barclays Bank “Start Your Own Business” Programme. However what really made an impact on the young entrepreneur was the Empretec Entrepreneur Training programme (May 1994), to which he was introduced by Mrs Tsitsi Masiyiwa. The course demonstrated that he had the requisite entrepreneurial competences.

Nigel talked Charles Gurney into an attempted management buy-out of Bard from Anglo -American. This failed and the increasingly frustrated aspiring entrepreneur considered employment opportunities with Nick Vingirai’s Intermarket and Never Mhlanga’s National Discount House which was on the verge of being formed – hoping to join as a shareholder since he was acquainted with the promoters. He was denied this opportunity.

Being frustrated at Bard and having been denied entry into the club by pioneers, he resigned in October 1994 with the encouragement of Mrs Masiyiwa to pursue his entrepreneurial dream.

The Dream

Inspired by the messages of his pastor, Rev. Tom Deuschle, and frustrated at his inability to participate in the church’s massive building project, Nigel sought a way of generating huge financial resources. During a time of prayer he claims that he had a divine encounter where he obtained a mandate from God to start Kingdom Bank. He visited his pastor and told him of this encounter and the subsequent desire to start a bank. The godly pastor was amazed at the 26 year old with “big spectacles and wearing tennis shoes” who wanted to start a bank. The pastor prayed before counselling the young man. Having been convinced of the genuineness of Nigel’s dream, the pastor did something unusual. He asked him to give a testimony to the congregation of how God was leading him to start a bank. Though timid, the young man complied. That experience was a powerful vote of confidence from the godly pastor. It demonstrates the power of mentors to build a protégé.

Nigel teamed up with young Franky Kufa. Nigel Chanakira left Bard at the position of Chief Economist. They would build their own entrepreneurial venture. Their idea was to identify players who had specific competences and would each be able to generate financial resources from his activity. Their vision was to create a one – stop financial institution offering a discount house, an asset management company and a merchant bank. Nigel used his Empretec model to develop a business plan for their venture. They headhunted Solomon Mugavazi, a stockbroker from Edwards and Company and B. R. Purohit, a corporate banker from Stanbic. Kufa would provide money market expertise while Nigel provided income from government bond dealings as well as overall supervision of the team.

Each of the budding partners brought in an equal portion of the Z$120,000 as start-up capital. Nigel talked to his wife and they sold their recently acquired Eastlea home and vehicles to raise the equivalent of US$17,000 as their initial capital. Nigel, his wife and three kids headed back to Highfield to live in with his parents. The partners established Garmony Investments which started trading as an unregistered financial institution. The entrepreneurs agreed not to draw a salary in their first year of operations as a bootstrapping strategy.

Mugavazi introduced and recommended Lysias Sibanda, a chartered accountant, to join the team. Nigel was initially reluctant as each person had to bring in an earning capacity and it was not clear how an accountant would generate revenue at start up in a financial institution. Nigel initially retained a 26% share which assured him a blocking vote as well as giving him the position of controlling shareholder.

Nigel credits the Success Motivation Institute (SMI) course “The Dynamics of Successful Management” as the lethal weapon that enabled him to acquire managerial competences. Initially he insisted that all his key executives undertake this training programme.

Birth of the Kingdom

Kingdom Securities P/L commenced operations in November 1994 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Garmony Investments (Pvt) Ltd. It traded as a broker on both money and stock markets.

On 24th February 1995 Kingdom Securities Holding was born with the following subsidiaries: Kingdom Securities Ltd, Kingdom Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd and Kingdom Asset Managers (Pvt) Ltd. The flagship Kingdom Securities Ltd was registered as a Discount House under Banking Act Chapter 188 on 25th July 1995. Kingdom Stockbrokers was registered with the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange under ZSE Chapter 195 on 1st August 1995. The pre-licensing trading had generated good revenue but they still had a 20% deficit of the required capital. Most institutional investors turned them down as they were a greenfield company promoted by people perceived to be “too young”. At this stage National Merchant Bank, Intermarket and others were on the market raising equity and these were run by seasoned and mature promoters. However Rachel Kupara, then MD for Zimnat, believed in the young entrepreneurs and took up the first equity portion for Zimnat at 5%.

Norman Sachikonye, then Financial Director and Investments Manager at First Mutual followed suit, taking up an equity share of 15%. These two institutional investors were inducted as shareholders of Kingdom Securities Holdings on 1st August 1995. Garmony Investments ceased operations and reversed itself into Kingdom Securities on 31st July 1995, thereby becoming an 80% shareholder.

The first year of operations was marked by intense competition as well as discrimination against new financial institutions by public organisations. All the other operating units performed well except for the corporate finance department with Kingdom Securities, led by Purohit. This monetary loss, differing spiritual and ethical values led to the forced departure of Purohit as an executive director and shareholder on 31st December 1995. From then the Kingdom started to grow exponentially.

Structural Growth

Nigel and his team pursued an aggressive growth strategy with the intention of increasing market share, profitability, and geographic spread while developing a strong brand. The growth strategy was built around a business philosophy of simplifying financial services and making them easily accessible to the general public. An IT strategy that created a low cost delivery channel exploiting ATMs and POS while providing a platform that was ready for Internet and web-based applications, was espoused.

On 1st April 1997, Kingdom Financial Services was licensed as an accepting house focusing on trading and distributing foreign currency, treasury activities, corporate finance, investment banking and advisory services. It was formed under the leadership of Victor Chando with the intention of becoming the merchant banking arm of the Group. In 1998, Kingdom Merchant Bank (KMB) was licensed and it took over the assets and liabilities of Kingdom Securities Limited. Its main focus was treasury related products, off-balance sheet finance, foreign currency and trade finance. Kingdom Research Institute was established as a support service to the other units.

The entrepreneurial bankers, cognisant of their limitations, sought to achieve critical mass quickly by actively seeking capital injection from equity investors. The aim was to broaden ownership while lending strategic support in areas of mutual interest. An attempt at equity uptake from Global Emerging Markets from London failed. However in 1997 the efforts of the bankers were rewarded when the following organisations took up some equity, reducing the shareholding of executive directors as shown below: ïEUR Ipcorn 0.7%, ïEUR Zambezi Fund Mauritius P/L 1.1%, ïEUR Zambezi Fund P/L 0.7%. ïEUR Kingdom Employee Share Trust 5%, ïEUR Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund – 8% redeemable preference shares amounting to US$1,5m as the first investee company in Southern Africa from the US Fund initiated by US President Bill Clinton, ïEUR Weiland Investments, a company belonging to Mr Richard Muirimi, a long standing friend of Nigel and associate in the fund management business took up 1.7%, Garmony Investments 71.7% -executive directors. ïEUR After a rights issue Zimnat fell to 4.8% while FML went down to 14.3%.

In 1998, Kingdom launched four Unit Trusts which proved very popular with the market. Initially these products were focused at individual clients of the discount house as well as private portfolios of Kingdom Stockbroking. Aggressive marketing and awareness campaigns established the Kingdom Unit Trust as the most popular retail brand of the group. The Kingdom brand was thus born.

Acquisition of Discount Company of Zimbabwe (DCZ)

After a spurt of organic growth, the Kingdom entrepreneurs decided to hasten the growth rate synergistically. They set out to acquire the oldest discount house in the country and the world, The Discount Company of Zimbabwe, which was a listed entity. With this acquisition Kingdom would acquire critical competences as well as achieve the much coveted ZSE listing inexpensively through a reverse listing. Initial efforts at a negotiated merger with DCZ were rebuffed by its executives who could not countenance a forty year old institution being swallowed up by a four year old business. The entrepreneurs were not deterred. Nigel approached his friend Greg Brackenridge at Stanbic to finance and effect the acquisition of the sixty percent shares which were in the hands of about ten shareholders, on behalf of Kingdom Financial Holdings but to be placed in the ownership of Stanbic Nominees. This strategy masked the identity of the acquirer. Claud Chonzi, the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) GM and a friend to Lysias Sibanda (a Kingdom executive director), agreed to act as a front in the negotiations with the DCZ shareholders. NSSA is a well known institutional investor and hence these shareholders may have believed that they were dealing with an institutional investor. Once Kingdom controlled 60% of DCZ, it took over the company and reverse listed itself onto the Stock Exchange as Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited (KFHL). Because of the negative real interest rates, Kingdom successfully used debt finance to structure the acquisition. This acquisition and the subsequent listing gave the once despised young entrepreneurs confidence and credibility on the market.

Other Strategic Acquisitions

Within the same year Kingdom Merchant Bank acquired a strategic stake in CFX Bureau de Change owned by Sean Maloney as well as another stake in a greenfield microlending franchise, Pfihwa P/L. CFX was changed into KFX and used in most foreign currency trading activities. KFHL set as a strategic intention the acquisition of an additional 24.9% stake in CFX Holdings to safeguard the initial investment and ensure management control. This did not work out. Instead, Sean Maloney opted out and took over the failed Universal Merchant Bank licence to form CFX Merchant Bank. Although Kingdom executives contend that the alliance failed due to the abolition of bureau de change by government, it appears that Sean Maloney refused to give up control of the extra shareholding sought by Kingdom. It therefore would be reasonable that once Kingdom could not control KFX, a fall out ensued. The liquidation of this investment in 2002 resulted in a loss of Z$403 million on that investment. However this was manageable in light of the strong group profitability.

Pfihwa P/L financed the informal sector as a form of corporate social responsibility. However when the hyperinflationary environment and stringent regulatory environment encroached on the viability of the project, it was wound up in early 2004. Kingdom pursued its financing of the informal sector through MicroKing, which was established with international assistance. By 2002 MicroKing had eight branches located in the midst of, or near, micro-enterprise clusters.

In 2000, due to increased activity on the foreign currency front within the banking sector, Kingdom opened a private banking facility through the discount house to exploit revenue streams from this market. Following market trends, it engaged the insurance company AIG to enter the bancassurance market in 2003.

Meikles Strategic Alliance

In 1999 the entrepreneurial Chanakira on advice from his executives and the legendary corporate finance team from Barclays bank led by the affable Hugh Van Hoffen entered into a strategic alliance with Meikles Africa whereby it injected some Z$322 million into Kingdom for an equity shareholding of 25%. Interestingly, the deal nearly collapsed on pricing as Meikles only wanted to pay $250 million whilst KFHL valued themselves at Z$322 million which in real terms was the largest private sector deal done between an indigenous bank and a listed corporate. Nigel testifies that it was a walk through the incomplete Celebration Church site on the Saturday preceding the signing of the Meikles deal that led him to sign the deal which he saw as a means for him to sow a whopping seed into the church to boost the Building Fund. God was faithful! Kingdom’s share price shot up dramatically from $2,15 at the time he made the commitment to the Pastor all the way to $112,00 by the following October!

In return Kingdom acquired a powerful cash-rich shareholder that allowed it entrance into retail banking through an innovative in-store banking strategy. Meikles Africa opened its retail branches, namely TM Supermarkets, Clicks, Barbours, Medix Pharmacies and Greatermans, as distribution channels for Kingdom commercial bank or as account holders providing deposits and requiring banking services. This was a cheaper way of entering retail banking. It proved useful during the 2003 cash crisis because Meikles with its massive cash resources within its business units assisted Kingdom Bank, thus cushioning it from a liquidity crisis. The alliance also raised the reputation and credibility of Kingdom Bank and created an opportunity for Kingdom to finance Meikles Africa’s customers through the jointly owned Meikles Financial Services. Kingdom provided the funding for all lease and hire purchases from Meikles’ subsidiaries, thus driving sales for Meikles while providing easy lending opportunities for Kingdom. Meikles managed the relationship with the client.

Meikles Africa as a strategic shareholder assured Kingdom of success when recapitalisation was required and has enhanced Kingdom’s brand image. This strategic relationship has created powerful synergies for mutual benefit.

Commercial Banking

Exploiting the opportunities arising from the strategic relationship with Meikles Africa, Kingdom made its debut into retail banking in January 2001 with in-store branches at High Glen and Chitungwiza TM supermarkets. The target was principally the mass market. This rode on the strong brand Kingdom had created through the Unit Trusts. In-store banking offered low cost delivery channels with minimal investment in brick and mortar. By the end of 2001, thirteen branches were operational across the country. This followed a deliberate strategy for aggressive roll-out of the branches with two flagship branches ïEUR­ïEUR one in Bulawayo and the other in Harare. There was a huge emphasis on an IT driven strategy with significant cross-selling between the commercial bank and other SBUs.

However, it was further discovered that there was a market for the upmarket clients and hence Crown banking outlets were established to diversify the target market. In 2004, after closing three in-store branches in a rationalization exercise, there were 16 in-store branches and 9 Crown banking outlets.

The entrance into commercial banking was probably held at the wrong time, considering the imminent changes in the banking industry. Commercial banking does provide cheap deposits, however at the price of huge staff costs and human resource management complications. Nigel concedes that, with hindsight, this could have been delayed or done at a slower pace. However, the need for increased market share in a fiercely competitive industry necessitated this. Another reason for persisting with the commercial banking project was that of prior agreements with Meikles Africa. It is possible that Meikles Africa had been sold on the equity take-up deal on the back of promises to engage in in-store banking, which would increase revenue for its subsidiaries.

Innovative Products and Services

KFHL continued its aggressive pursuit of product innovation. After the failure of the KFX project, CurrencyKing was established to continue the work. However this was abolished in November 2002 by government ministerial intervention when bureau de change were prohibited in an effort to stamp out parallel market foreign currency trading.

Sadly this governmental decision was misguided for not only did it fail to banish foreign currency parallel trading but it drove underground, made it more lucrative and subsequently the government lost all control of the management of the exchange rate.

In October 2002, KFHL established Kingdom Leasing after being granted a finance house licence. Its mandate was to exploit opportunities to trade in financial leases, lease hire and short term financial products.

Regional Expansion

Around 2000 it became evident that the domestic market was highly competitive, with limited prospects of future growth. A decision was made to diversify revenue streams and reduce country risk through penetration into the regional markets. This strategy would exploit the proven competences in securities trading, asset management and corporate advisory services from a small capital base. Therefore the entrance had low risk in terms of capital injection. Considering the foreign exchange control limitations and shortage of foreign currency in Zimbabwe, this was a prudent strategy but not without its downside, as will be seen in the Botswana venture.

In 2001, KFHL acquired a 25.1% stake in a greenfield banking enterprise in Malawi, First Discount House Ltd. To safeguard its investment and ensure managerial control, an executive director and dealer were seconded to the Malawi venture while Nigel Chanakira chaired the Board. This investment has continued to grow and yield positive returns. As of July 2006 Kingdom had finally managed to up its stake from 25,1% to 40% in this investment and may ultimately control it to the point of seeking a conversion of the license to a commercial bank.

KFHL also took up a 25% equity stake in Investrust Merchant Bank Zambia. Franky Kufa was seconded to it as an executive director while Nigel took a seat on the Board.

KFHL had been promised an option to gain a controlling stake. However when the bank stabilized, the Zambian shareholders entered into some questionable transactions and were not prepared to allow KFHL to up it’s stake and so KFHL decided to pull out as relationships turned frosty. The Zambian Central Bank intervened with a promise to grant KFHL its own banking license. This did not materialize as the Zambian Central Bank exploited the banking crisis in Zimbabwe to deny KHFL a licence. A reasonable premium of Z$2.5 billion was obtained at disinvestment.

In Botswana, a subsidiary called Kingdom Bank Africa Ltd (KBAL) was established as an offshore bank in the International Finance Centre. KBAL was intended to spearhead and manage regional initiatives for Kingdom. It was headed by Mrs Irene Chamney, seconded by Lysias Sibanda with the concurrence of Nigel after managerial challenges in Zimbabwe. Two other senior executives were seconded there. She successfully set up the KBAL’s banking infrastructure and had good relations with the Botswana authorities.

However, the business model chosen of an offshore bank ahead of a domestic Botswana merchant bank license turned out to be the Achilles heel of the bank more so when the Zimbabwe banking crisis set in between 2003 and 2005. There were fundamental differences in how Mrs Chamney and Chanakira saw the bank surviving and going forward.

Ultimately, it was deemed prudent for Mrs. Chamney to leave the bank in 2005. In 2001 KFHL acquired the mandate as the sole distributor of the American Express card in the whole of Africa except for RSA. This was handled through KBAL. Kingdom Private Bank was transferred from the discount house to become a subsidiary of KBAL due to the prevailing regulatory environment in Zimbabwe.

In 2004 KBAL was temporarily placed under curatorship due to undercapitalisation. At this stage the parent company had regulatory constraints that prevented foreign currency capital injection.

A solution was found in the sourcing of local partners and the transfer of US$1 million previously realised from the proceeds of the Investrust liquidation to Botswana. Nigel Chanakira took a more active management role in KBAL because of its huge strategic significance to the future of KFHL. Currently efforts are underway to acquire a local commercial bank licence in Botswana as well. Once this is acquired there are two possible scenarios, namely maintaining both licences or giving up the offshore licence.

The interviewees were divided in their opinion on this. However in my view, judging from the stakeholder power involved, KFHL is likely to give up the off shore banking licence and use the local Kingdom Bank Botswana (Pula Bank) licence for regional and domestic expansion.

Human Resources

The staff complement grew from the initial 23 in 1995 to more than 947 by 2003. The growth was consistent with the growing institution. It exploded, especially during the launch and expansion of the commercial bank. Kingdom from inception had a strong human resourcing strategy which entailed significant training both internally and externally. Before the foreign currency crisis, employees were sent for training in such countries as RSA, Sweden, India and the USA. In the person of Faith Ntabeni Bhebhe, Kingdom had an energetic HR driver who created powerful HR systems for the emerging behemoth.

As a sign of its commitment to building the human resource capability, in 1998 Kingdom Financial Services entered a management agreement with Holland based AMSCO for the provision of seasoned bankers. Through this strategic alliance Kingdom strengthened its skills base and increased opportunities for skills transfer to locals. This helped the entrepreneurial bankers create a solid managerial system for the bank while the seasoned bankers from Holland compensated for the youthfulness of the emerging bankers. What a foresight!

In-house self-paced interactive learning, team building exercises and mentoring were all part of the learning menu targeted at developing the human resource capacity of the group. Work and job profiling was introduced to best match employees to suitable posts. Career path and succession planning were embraced. Kingdom was the first entrepreneurial bank to have smooth unforced CEO transitions. The founding CEO passed on the baton to Lysias Sibanda in 1999 as he stepped into the role of Group CEO and board deputy chair. His role was now to pursue and spearhead global and regional niche financial markets. A few years later there was another change of the guard as

Franky Kufa stepped in as Group CEO to replace Sibanda, who resigned on medical grounds. One could argue that these smooth transitions were due to the fact that the baton was passing to founding directors.

With the explosive growth in staff complement due to the commercial bank project, culture issues emerged. Consequently, KFHL engaged in an enculturation programme resulting in a culture revolution dubbed “Team Kingdom”. This culture had to be reinforced due to dilutions through significant mergers and acquisitions, significant staff turnover because of increased competition, emigration to greener pastures and the age profile of the staff increased the risk of high mobility and fraudulent activities in collusion with members of the public. Culture changes are difficult to effect and their effectiveness even harder to assess.

In 2004, with a high staff turnover of around 14%, a compensation strategy that ring fenced critical skills like IT and treasury was implemented. Due to the low margins and the financial stress experienced in 2004, KFHL lost more than 341 staff members due to retrenchment, natural attrition and emigration. This was acceptable as profitability fell while staff costs soared. At this stage, staff costs accounted for 58% of all expenses.

Despite the impressive growth, the financial performance when inflation adjusted was mediocre. Actually a loss position was reported in 2004. This growth was severely compromised by the hyperinflationary conditions and the restrictive regulatory environment.

Conclusion

This article shows the determination of entrepreneurs to push through to the realisation of their dreams despite significant odds. In a subsequent article we will tackle the challenges faced by Nigel Chanakira in solidifying his investments.

Day traders are people who buy and sell stocks of various companies all day long. There are mainly two types of day traders – scalpers and momentum traders, Scalpers buys and sells very quickly whereas momentum traders buy stock that is moving up or down during the day.

The main objective of day trader is to maximize profit with minimum risk. As an active day trader, I am sharing with you the benefits of earning within a single market day – and the potential challenges with day trading.

You perhaps warned by your friends, relatives or stock market consultants that day trading is risky. However, from my personal experience, I found it is no more risky than long-term investment in volatile stock or futures.

I would rather say investment in equity is always risky because of erratic and sometimes unpredictable nature of market forces. On the contrary, investments in banks allow money to grow at a small rate, while that rate is guaranteed, and the local government generally protects the money. However, you need to invest some portion of your capital in capital market for wealth building.

Let us examine why short term and long-term investment pose the same risk in terms of capital loss. We will consider a hypothetical scenario to explain the point.

Let’s assume you are a value investor and invested in a company A. On 25 th July’07, company A is opened at $27 in the morning, and then plummets to $24 within a few hours due to a large class action lawsuit being filed against them. If the company A goes to bankrupt because of said lawsuit, share of company A will fall drastically. In this situation, all kinds of share market investors will loose their capital because the stock is worthless now.

Even in the above case, day trader might protect their capital well because they are normally very cautious and open to all kinds of market news. Day trader mainly works based on market intelligence.

To be successful as day trader, you need to do many practices and most important you need to learn from your mistakes. You need to work with an experienced day trader, need to learn latest techniques, use latest stock market investment software and need to devise your own trading plan.

Different methods of coal mining are adapted to dig out the natural coal from the earth. Among them, Surface mining method is applied for producing coal of about nearly 40% in the world. The coal deposits are found on the surface of the earth and make the mining easier for the coal-miners. The various types of coal mining are contour, mountaintop removal and strip mining.

Strip mining is adopted in areas, which has leveled landscape. The surface coal is exposed when the earth covering them is removed in strips. When the whole earth concealing is removed from the surface the coal that lay beneath is exposed. They appear in blocks and are usually extracted either by drilling or blasting. Once the strip is free of coal or goes empty, the strip mining process is continued with the next strip that lay adjacent to the former.

The contour mining is used to remove coal from the layer following the contours found along the ridges of a hill or landscape. The commonly used places for this type of mining are areas with rolling to steep terrain. This method may create landslides and erosion troubles. Using the freshly cut overburden to refill the mined areas rectifies these problems. Strip mining has its own limitations and when the process of strip mining reaches a specific stripping ratio, it may not yield you profit when continued.

Mountaintop removal coal mining can be understood by its name. Removing the mountaintops exposes the coal. This method also involves disposing of mining overburden that is associated with mountaintops removal in nearby valleys. This method is a combination of area and contour strip mining methods. This process creates adverse changes in the topography like creating head of hollow hills and filling valleys with mining wastes.

Latest open cast methods can reveal higher proportion of coal deposit than the underground mining methods.

Deep mining or underground mining is applied to dug out coal that lay underneath the surface of the earth. The primary underground mining ways are Continuous, Longwall, Shortwall, Retreat and Blast Mining.

Longwall mining method is adopted for about 50% of underground mining. This method involves a complex machine with a revolving drum that sways mechanically back and forth across the coal deposit. This method yields high production and ensures safety. This method has sensors that can detect the quantity of remaining coal in the seam and robotic controls contribute to the efficiency of the process.

Continuous mining method is applied for about 45% in underground coal mining. The machine used in this method has a huge revolving steel drum that is facilitated with tungsten carbide teeth to extract the coal from the seam.

Blast mining occupies less than 5% of the whole underground mining in USA. Explosives are used to break the coal seam in this method. The extracted coal is collected and transported to the central area using conveyors or shuttle cars.

Shortwall mining covers 1% and the method is somewhat similar to longwall mining. Retreat mining method employs pillar or coal ribs to support the roof of the mine. This is the most dangerous method as it involves risk of falling roofs that might trap or crush the workers in the mine.

The ability to text message from ANYWHERE on the planet is something new, and gives relationships something they’ve never had before…the ability to keep our relationships exciting, even if we are separated from our lovers.

Now the hard part is trying to be creativity and erotic on your own. While sometimes it just rolls off the tongue, and thinking of what to say is quite easy. Other times, you might receive a sexy message and be dumbfounded on how to respond.

Below is a list of dirty talk messages that should be used when you can’t see the person you want, and your goal is to make them think OBSESS about you and the fact they can’t have you right now.

Some of these dirty talk messages are fun, some are serious, so use them wisely and don’t randomly use them. Sometimes humor when you’re having a seriously sexy chat can spoil the mood.

1. Hi. I’m horny.

2. I just thought about how awesome you are. And how awesome I am. Let’s hook up!

3. If you were the new burger at McDonalds you would be the McSexy!

4. You’re so f’n sexy!!

5. I want you right NOW.

6. The thought of you is turning me on!

7. Can you send me a picture so I can show Santa what I want for Christmas?

8. I can’t wait to see you later

9. You are SO hot

10. I love your body

11. I’ve been thinking about you ALL day

12. You make me want to do BAD things to you…and myself;)

13. I’m so h*rd/w3t right now

14. I would give anything to be with you right now!

15. I’ll be waiting for you later…naked;)

16. You can do whatever you want

17. The fact I can’t have you right now makes me want you MORE

18. What would YOU do to ME?

19. I’ve never been so turned on by someone!

20. I’ve NEVER wanted someone like I want you

21. You’d look so hot going down on me:)

22. No one does me like you!

23. I want you so bad I don’t notice anyone else

24. I’ve never met someone who turns me on like you!

25. You have the nicest a$$ on the planet, is it real?

26. Hey I just realized this, but you look a lot like my next girlfriend/boyfriend!

27. What are you wearing?

28. Your body makes me happy

29. I’m not wearing any underwear… maybe I can wear you later

30. Hello, I’m a thief, and I’m here to steal your heart.

31. Can I please be your slave tonight?

32. Do you know, your hair and my pillow are perfectly color coordinated?

33. God must have been in a very good mood the day we met.

34. I think I could fall madly in bed with you.

35. I want to melt in your mouth, not in your hand.

36. I wonder what our children will look like.

37. I’d like to name a multiple orgasm after you!

38. I’ll cook you dinner if you cook me breakfast.

39. I’ve got a condom with your name on it.

40. Picture this, you, me, bubble baths, and a bottle of champagne.

41. What do you like for breakfast?

42. Why don’t you surprise your roommate and not come home tonight???

43. Will you marry me for just one night?

44. Can I buy you a drink, or do you just want the money?;)

45. Don’t be so picky… I wasn’t! Just kidding, I love you

46. You want me. I can smell it.

47. Damn…..your ass is fine! Want to come see mine?

48. You’re like pizza. Even when you’re bad, you’re good.

49. I would lose my wallet just to see you right now

50. I’m in one of those ‘you could do whatever you want moods’ too bad you’re not here

51. Got any raisins? (No.) Then how about a date?

52. Milk does the body good, but damn how much did you drink?

53. Do you sleep on your stomach? (yes/no) Can I?

54. You so fine!

55. I say we Déjà vu last night all over again later?

56. Hi. My name is (name). I’ll be your play toy tonight.

57. Are you a virgin? (No.) Prove it!

58. My bedroom has a very interesting ceiling…

59. So what did you think of me last night? Pretty fantastic eh?

60. You’re on my list of things to do tonight.

61. OH GOD! OH GOD! Just practicing;)

62. Do you know how to use a whip? hehe

63. I’m drunk:)

64. Didn’t anyone tell you that you wanted to sleep with me??? I thought you knew!

65. Hey babe, wanna get LUCKY!?

66. Your place or mine?

67. You *will* come home with me tonight (Jedi mind trick)

68. I’m gay, think you can convert me?

69. I’m just looking for a friend with benefits (Uhm?) No not sex. A car, nice stuff, etc. Get your mind out of the gutter.

As always we had a lot of fun putting together this list. We know that we’ve missed some GREAT dirty talk lines so please feel free to comment some of your favorite messages.

Owning a home is the most important dream of any person. It is one of the basic necessities of life as stated by Maslow in his 'Theory of Hierarchy of Needs'. People generally desire to have a home which not only gives them shelter, but also should be the expression of their artistic tastes, and an object of pride. Owning a home is a matter of spending of life's savings. For some- related to the high e-learning group, it is not a problem; but for others arranging financing for their dream home is a very critical decision, they ever take in their life. To enable people to realize there dream, financial institutions and banks offer home loans to people.

Home loans play a very important role in the lives of UK nationals. Every year there are borrowings worth billions of pounds by the UK nationals for home loans. Now days, home loans have become a necessary part of life as it is not essential that one has the necessary amount of money to finance his immediate requirement for purchasing home. One can avail home loans, after signing a document with a financial institution on a specified amount of money to go with the purchase with that borrowed money. Lenders and financial institutions keep the house or any other residential property as collateral. In the UK, home loans are offered by innumerable financial institutions at various APR. The amount of loan approved usually depends on the income and assets of the borrower and his capacity to pay back the loan.

In the UK, home loans offered are of two types:

Fixed rate home loan

Variable rate home loan

Fixed rate home loans are offered to borrowers at a prefixed rate of interest for a specified time period. In case of upward fluctuations in interest rates in the market, customers enjoy the benefit of not paying any extra sum money on the increased rate of interest. Variable rate home loans, on the other hand are left to the mercy of lenders and government regulations. In case of upward trend, the borrowers have to tighten their budget.

With the ever increasing competition in the market, more and more financial institutions are offering home loans at lower APR along with customer oriented services. All companies claim to be the leading loan and other financial services provider with the best service. In order to tap the growing market companies and lending institutions are coming up with more innovative products to cater to the requirements of all the customers. With the advent of internet, the services offered have become more fast and efficient. Now one can compare the best rate offered in the market at the click of the mouse.

The complications in home owner loans fall when borrower defaults in the payment of the monthly installment. In many cases, it has been seen that lenders start charging more interest rate than the standard rate. Wise borrowers, in such situation, switch over to a new lender for better rate of interest and fee waivers. This is termed as remortgage. Remortgage is a very prudent way of avoiding heavy interest rate. There are innumerable agencies which suggest better remortgage options to the borrowers.

Moreover, with gradual shift from the sellers 'market to the buyers' market, the ultimate beneficiary is the customer. Companies even offer value added services to the borrowers to evolve brand loyalty. Companies are even leveraging strength from modern management practices and corporate governance. In the long run, company which offers the best financial solution with the right set of marketing mix will win the race.

The Web is part of society and is shaped by society. And until society is a crime-free zone, the Web won’t be a crime-free zone.

So what is a cryptocurrency? A cryptocurrency is a decentralised payment system, which basically lets people send currency to each other over the web without the need for a trusted third party such as a bank or financial institution. The transactions are cheap, and in many cases, they’re free. And also, the payments are pseudo anonymous as well.

As well as that, the main feature is that it’s totally decentralised, which means that there’s no single central point of authority or anything like that. The implications of this is done by everyone having a full copy of all the transactions that have ever happened with Bitcoin. This creates an incredibly resilient network, which means that no one can change or reverse or police any of the transactions.

The high level of anonymity in there means that it’s very hard to trace transactions. It’s not totally impossible, but it’s impractical in most cases. So crime with cryptocurrency– because you’ve got fast, borderless transactions, and you’ve got a high level of anonymity, it in theory creates a system that is ripe for exploitation. So in most cases when it’s a crime online with online payment systems, then they tend to go to the authorities and, say, we can hand over this payment information or we can stop these transactions and reverse them. And none of that can happen with Bitcoin, so it makes it ripe for criminals, in theory.

In light of this, a lot of different agencies are researching into Bitcoin and looking at Bitcoin and trying to understand how it works and what they can do to police it. It’s also been in the media quite a few times, and the media, being the media, like focus on the bad side of it. So they focus very heavily on the crime with it. So if there’s a theft or a scam or something like that, then they tend to blame it on Bitcoin and Bitcoin users.

So the most notable is probably Silk Road, which got taken down recently, and through their $1.2 billion worth of Bitcoins, went to pay for anything from drugs to guns to hit men to those sorts of things. And the media, again, very quickly to blame this on Bitcoins and say that it was the Bitcoin user’s fault.

But there’s actually very little evidence of the scale of the problem of crime with cryptocurrencies. We don’t know if there’s a lot or we don’t know if there’s a little. But despite this, people are very quick to brand it as a criminal thing, and they forget the legitimate uses, such as the fast and quick payment.

So a few research questions I’m looking at in this area is what does crime with Bitcoin look like? So a lot of people will say that scams and thefts have been going on for ages. But the means through which they happen changes with the technology. So a Victorian street swindler would practically be doing something very different to a 419 Nigerian prince scammer.

So the next question that I’d like to research as well is looking at the scale of the problem of crime with cryptocurrency. So by generating a log of known scams and thefts and things like that, we can then cross reference that with the public transaction log of all transactions and see just how much of the transactions are actually illegal and criminal. So my final question would be, to what extent does the technology itself actually facilitate crime? By looking back at the crime logs, we can see which particular sorts of crime happen, and if it is actually the technology’s fault, or is this just the same old crimes that we’ve been looking at before. And once we’ve consider these things, we can start to think about possible solutions to the issue of crime with Bitcoin.

And we can consider that the only suitable solution would be one that preserves the underlying values of the technology itself, which would be privacy and decentralisation. A lot of focus from the media is to look at the criminal aspects of it. And they don’t give enough value to the legitimate uses, because Bitcoin is a technology that enables fast, quick payments, which is useful to anyone that’s ever paid for anything on the web.

Colon is the division or portion of the digestive system wherein the waste matter is hoarded. The rectum is the last part of the colon near the anus. Jointly, they form the long, muscular tube which is called the large bowel or large intestine. Cancers of the rectum and also the colon are growths coming from the internal wall of the big intestine. Benign tumors arising in the big intestine are known as polyps. Malignant tumors of the big intestine are identified as cancers.

Benign nodules do not attack nearby tissue or scatter to some parts of the human body. Benign growths can be removed easily during colonoscopy and they are not critical. If benign growths are not detached from the big intestine, they will become cancerous. Majority of the cancers in the big intestine are supposed to arise from polyps. Cancer of the rectum and also the colon can attack and injure the nearby organs as well as tissues. Cancer cells will also scatter and break away to other portions of the human body, like the lings and liver wherein the new tumors are formed. The scatter of the colon tumor to remote organs is known as metastasis. After metastasis has happened in colorectal tumor, a comprehensive treatment of the malignancy is doubtful.

Internationally, malignant neoplasm of the rectum and colon is the 3rd primary cause of tumor in males and the 4th primary cause of tumors in females. The incidence of colorectal tumor varies worldwide. In countries wherein the people have taken up western diets, the occurrence of colorectal tumor is increasing.

Factors that add to the person’s danger of colorectal tumor include elevated fat intake, family record of colorectal polyps and cancer, the incidence of polyps in the big intestine, and constant ulcerative colitis.

Symptoms of colon tumors are nonspecific and numerous. They include weakness, fatigue, briefness of breath, narrow stools, diarrhea or constipation, change in bowel practice, red or dark blood in the feces, weight loss, cramps, abdominal pain, or bloating. Other situations like spastic colon, peptic ulcer, and ulcerative colitis are some symptoms of colorectal cancer.

Symptoms for colon cancer differ according to the location of the tumor in the big intestine. The right colon is large and cancers here can grow into big sizes before they cause abdominal signs. Usually, right-sided tumors can cause anemia because of the gradual blood loss over a long duration of time. Anemia causes weakness, fatigue and shortness of breath.

Left colon is slightly narrower compared to the right colon. Hence, tumors in the left colon possibly cause the complete or partial obstruction of the bowel. Cancers which cause partial obstruction of the bowel may cause signs of constipation, diarrhea, narrowed stool, cramps, abdominal pains and bloating. Dark red blood in the stool can also be indicative of a growth adjacent to the end of the rectum and left colon.

What is Data Mining? Well, it can be defined as the process of getting hidden information from the piles of databases for analysis purposes. Data Mining is also known as Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD). It is nothing but extraction of data from large databases for some specialized work.

Data Mining is largely used in several applications such as understanding consumer research marketing, product analysis, demand and supply analysis, e-commerce, investment trend in stocks & real estates, telecommunications and so on. Data Mining is based on mathematical algorithm and analytical skills to drive the desired results from the huge database collection.

Data Mining has great importance in today’s highly competitive business environment. A new concept of Business Intelligence data mining has evolved now, which is widely used by leading corporate houses to stay ahead of their competitors. Business Intelligence (BI) can help in providing latest information and used for competition analysis, market research, economical trends, consume behavior, industry research, geographical information analysis and so on. Business Intelligence Data Mining helps in decision-making.

Data mining, however, is a crucial process and requires lots of time and patience in collecting desired data due to complexity and of the databases. This could also be possible that you need to look for help from outsourcing companies. These outsourcing companies are specialized in extracting or mining the data, filtering it and then keeping them in order for analysis. Data Mining has been used in different context but is being commonly used for business and organizational needs for analytical purposes

Usually data mining requires lots of manual job such as collecting information, assessing data, using internet to look for more details etc. The second option is to make software that will scan the internet to find relevant details and information. Software option could be the best for data mining as this will save tremendous amount of time and labor. Some of the popular data mining software programs available are Connexor Machines, Free Text Software Technologies, Megaputer Text Analyst, SAS Text Miner, LexiQuest, WordStat, Lextek Profiling Engine.

However, this could be possible that you won’t get appropriate software which will be suitable for your work or finding the suitable programmer would also be difficult or they may charge hefty amount for their services. Even if you are using the best software, you will still need human help in completion of projects. In that case, outsourcing data mining job will be advisable.